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Tag: Inspirational. life

Mindset Origins: Grant Yourself A Pardon

Mindset Origins: Grant Yourself A Pardon

 I have been writing Mindsets for 25 years. I thought I might take some time to explain exactly what they are and how they originated. For most, if not all of us, we have defining moments or experiences which mold us into who we become. For me, that was a clinical depression in early adulthood. I began writing to help me express and understand that depression. Initially, most of it was dark poetry, but the more I wrote the less about expression and the more about understanding and finding hope it became. Within a few years, the dark poetry became more, eventually morphing into what would become Mindsets. I had chosen to focus on what could be as opposed to what was. I chose to understand instead of escape into a vice or become completely lost in misery. I needed to believe that everything has meaning and that life is not a cosmic roll of the dice without rhyme and reason. Writing Mindsets has helped me to answer many of my questions and hopefully answer a few for others as well. In addition, it has allowed me to write about subjects for which I am passionate. I will be publishing a series of my early Mindsets that I hope you will enjoy. Most of what I usually publish are new ones that I have written recently and so you will see subtle differences in styles and context as my style has evolved over the years, Below is the second Mindset in this series.

Grant Yourself A Pardon

Life leaves scars, regrets, and sorrows that grow and integrate into our daily experiences. Because of this, they eventually become more than feelings, developing into an integral part of who we are. As they grow, they begin to mislead us causing us to believe their hold on us is stronger than our gift of choice.

If we simply resist the deception and remember that who we are and where we are going is our choice, then we can choose for every day to be a new beginning. What has brought us contempt and unhappiness in the past can feel erased by the mere choice to be free of them.

What we hold on to, holds on to us be it positive or negative. If we choose to keep the negative then it chooses to keep us in that darkness. Circumstances are not punishments or rewards. They are, however, prisons or freedoms we either build or grant ourselves.

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Mindset Origins

Mindset Origins

 I have been writing Mindsets for 25 years. I thought I might take some time to explain exactly what they are and how they originated. For most, if not all of us, we have defining moments or experiences which mold us into who we become. For me, that was a clinical depression in early adulthood. I began writing to help me express and understand that depression. Initially, most of it was dark poetry, but the more I wrote the less about expression and the more about understanding and finding hope it became. Within a few years, the dark poetry became more, eventually morphing into what would become Mindsets. I had chosen to focus on what could be as opposed to what was. I chose to understand instead of escape into a vice or become completely lost in misery. I needed to believe that everything has meaning and that life is not a cosmic roll of the dice without rhyme and reason. Writing Mindsets has helped me to answer many of my questions and hopefully answer a few for others as well. In addition, it has allowed me to write about subjects for which I am passionate. I will be publishing a series of my early Mindsets that I hope you will enjoy. Most of what I usually publish are new ones that I have written recently and so you will see subtle differences in styles and context as my style has evolved over the years, Below is the first Mindset in this series.

It Only Takes A Spark In The Darkness To See

So often it seems the root of humanity stems from what we want instead of what others need. The desire of tending to our own comforts can build walls separating us from those who need us the most. It is not always a conscious act of neglect but more of an unwilling blindness that keeps us from the most important issues and people in our lives.

It is a simple gesture to give, one that requires only the choices to see and then to act. This simplicity has an awesome effect on both the giver and the receiver because it brings positivity, which sparks an internal change that never ceases to evolve.

After truly experiencing the power of giving, we no longer see ourselves as individuals with personal desires but rather part of a large family whose needs lead us to the understanding that we are only as comfortable and secure as those to whom we give.

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In A New Light: Does God Ever Leave Us?

In A New Light: Does God Ever Leave Us?

C.L. Harmon

Many times while watching documentaries, I have heard Jewish survivors say that God was no there during that evil period we know as the Holocaust. Each time I would hear one of them say it, an uneasy feeling would pulse through me. I guess as a Christian who has been taught that God is always with me, it gave me pause and challenged my traditional beliefs. To have endured such evil, perhaps I too would feel the same way as these people. I don’t know. But I do know it bothered me. Is God sometimes absent from our lives? For people raised in Christianity, it must seem almost as blasphemy to think such a thought. But I want to know.

I am not sure that the question has an answer. At least not a complete answer we are privy to in this realm of existence. It is intriguing to me though that it’s possible humanity is sometimes responsible for dealing with its own messes. There must have been many people in the world at that time who knew that an evil regime was in power, yet only a few ever tried to stop it. Most in the Axis countries did nothing. Maybe God felt like that He had given enough. Maybe He thought that so much had been given to humanity already and that it was time for us to learn a lesson.

Although those persecuted by the Nazis suffered the greatest as a whole without a doubt, everyone involved in a war suffers to some extent. Each country and each person suffers during conflicts. Perhaps He did step back and expect humanity to step up and finally learn the words by Edmund Burke, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,”. Maybe this was God’s way of saying that He did not allow this, but humanity allowed it by doing nothing when something had to be done.

If this were true, it would certainly explain a great deal about the miseries we suffer in our own lives. Perhaps free will carries a much greater meaning than we are willing to accept and thus accept its responsibility. As parents, do we not know that by allowing our children to make mistakes, we teach them? Does not requiring them to pay for those mistakes not teach them about the consequences of their actions or failure to act? I do not believe God punishes us for using our free will in poor judgment. I do, however, believe that he allows the consequences from it to serve as life lessons.

I further don’t believe that God ever abandons us entirely at any time. I believe He is always with us but remains silent and inactive while giving humanity the opportunity and the time to do what is right and noble. Perhaps those who believe God was absent in the concentration camps and occupied territories feel that way because God was silent just as he had been the 400 years between the Old Testament and the New Testament (Malachi’s Warning to the Jewish people). God did not abandon His children then; He remained silent while they found their way back to Him in their practices. Had He decided to abandon them, then what would have been the point of sending Malachi in 430 BC and Christ 430 years later?

These are simply my thoughts, nothing more. I find that writing allows me to explore the questions this life offers me. These writings are not proclamations of truth, but simply investigative writings which help me understand my world. It is always my hope to open up my mind and others’ as to new ways of seeing the world so that we may all have a better understanding of life and the role we play in it.

Thanks for Reading!

 

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Loss Is A Gain We Cannot Afford To Lose

Loss Is A Gain We Cannot Afford To Lose

We are these amazing creatures with passions, secrets, knowledge, and wisdom caught up in this essence of life, the only reality familiar to us. We learn to love and then must learn to accept that we lose it. We trust that goodness always prevails and yet ultimately discover that evil often wins the day. We must learn to control anger and violence when we feel passionate that it is warranted. We must learn to forgive when it is not deserved. We are compelled to build and create fully aware that destruction is inevitable. And we must learn and do all of these in order to grow.

We can survive without learning any of these expectations which are laid at our feet. We can prosper through evil deeds and achieve monetary trophies and titles, but we will never grow into anyone who truly appreciates the life which is given to us if we do not choose to accept what is difficult. Growth has always been the gift. It is the metamorphosis which defines the real meaning of free will and the reason for which it was given.

We never become any more than the years of our age without the choice to accept the growth which only comes through our willingness to accept the suffering which makes it possible. Your choice to accept and to learn is your reward. Everything worthwhile and lasting is only gained through loss and suffering. Without this knowledge, we will never comprehend the value of anything. What makes us so amazing is not only our ability to gain through loss but our choice to willingly accept a loss with only the belief that we gain.

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What Lies Within

What Lies Within

A sculptor looks at a piece of granite or stone with either a belief that there is a work of art within that stone that he will uncover. Or he looks at it with the belief that he will create a work of art from where there was none before.Although the creation may be the same in appearance as each artisan finishes toiling with the stone, the sculptures are very different to the sculptors. The artisan who uncovers what is hidden learns that he can see beyond what is on the surface.

He can chisel each sliver of stone to discover that beauty and creation are all around us if we choose to remove those layers which obscure them. He begins to understand that all things have depth and if we do not seek to uncover what lies beneath then we lose what has been hidden for us to find.

The artisan who creates from within to bring about something new understands that the origins of creations are mysteries locked up inside of us. He learns that the surface of the stone is an opportunity to carve, chip and then breathe life into a new creation.

But it is the artisans themselves who learn above all that they are simply a stone for another Creator. One who has hidden beauty and mystery within them awaiting discovery. Through our visions, toils, and patience, we all create and unearth the mysteries in our daily lives only to realize we were always the greatest works of art in the universe.

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Mindset: Patterns Are Us

Mindset: Patterns Are Us

C.L. Harmon

There have always been patterns in life that most never give a second thought. For those who do, they only see enough to know there are such patters and not the reasoning behind them. We even classify these patterns in terms such as love languages, personality types, body types, attitude dispositions, among many others.

But why are we given patterns when each of us is created to be unique? Perhaps it so we never feel alone. In a creation where each is unique, it stands to reason that we would often feel alone with no guides, teachers or examples to follow because of our individuality.  But with our natural inclination to recognize and be drawn to what feels familiar, we are given the opportunity to learn from those before us who are in the same patterns we are.

Within this incredible existence we inhabit, we are all guides to others. When we experience loss, tragedy, heartbreak or any other suffering, we are given a light in the darkness that is built into our psyches. If we are weak in our faith and stumbling through misery and confusion, our Creator still gives us a map to bring us direction through our desires to identify with others who are familiar to us through these patterns.

As unique as we are and as lost as we can become, we are never left alone. We are all each other’s keepers and teachers. Our experiences are the messages of comfort we offer others who are wayward. What an incredible design that we are a part of. If patterns prove nothing else, they prove we are connected and instrumental in the cohesion that which connects an entirely unique creation into the purpose that we are actually one with eachother.

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Mindset: Free Will Is A Choice

Mindset: Free Will Is A Choice

The concept of free will is simple in its definition, but baffling to many of us since the choices we make do not always lead us to the outcomes for which we hoped and believed. How is it that some make choices to pursue specific goals and make similar choices as others to attain those goals, but do not the achieve the goals while others do.

I believe this is because of the choices we make with the actual freewill we are given. One of the greatest gifts we can give our Creator, who gave us free will, is to trust him so much that we give it back to Him. This action tells Him that we believe so much that His choices for us will be greater than any we could have chosen for ourselves.

However, as a result of this, we are led on a journey that is often blind and appears to make no sense. Others who choose to keep their free will and guide themselves often do reach their goals, but will not attain the greater gifts and understanding in this life He had set aside for them.

It is our choice to trust in our Creator or to only trust in ourselves. This is true free will. However, we cannot serve ourselves and the Creator too. Perhaps the greatest gift He gave us was the opportunity to give our destinies back to him, instead of leaving us to battle the world without His guidance.

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Mindset: Happiness Is A State Of Acceptance

Mindset: Happiness Is A State Of Acceptance

It’s often said that we are responsible for our own happiness and that we simply choose our internal strength and will of mind to help us find comfort and joy. I don’t believe this to be completely accurate.
Although I do believe that we are responsible for our own happiness to a degree and that choice is a contributing factor in our happiness, I also believe that others play a key role in how we feel as well.
Human beings were not created to be alone or to exist in solitude. We are created to learn, live and love with others. Though it is true that we experience love from our Creator, it is only through others that we can experience intimate love with another, trusting love with a friend or the pure love that is raising a child.
Each one of these types of loves brings happiness and a sense of joy that is unmatched anywhere else in creation. The absence of them will most certainly cause us to feel sadness, depression, and pain. We can only learn to accept this absence with grace and a belief that there is a purpose in that absence. But true happiness only comes through our connections to each other, our will to seek happiness and the choice to make them one.

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Lost Meaning to the World

Mindset

When we think of our lives, our place in humanity and our world, we tend to think of it on a broad scale that encompasses all that we do and experience as an ordinary ritual of sorts. But what if that world we focus so heavily on each day causes us to lose sight of so much more.

Consider that all life, each individual entity, is a world all its own, made up of countless functions and processes in constant motion. We must realize that life is happening in each ability, every talent, each characteristic—every second. Examine them as though they are the only thing in your world. See them as a sole entity, full of energy and vitality and become enlightened as to the extraordinary genius of your creation.

Within each thought that becomes an idea, every ability that becomes a creation and each characteristic that brings interaction with others, there is an opportunity to discover that perhaps the meaning of life is simply that life has meaning. The hours we are given to live are our opportunity to find that meaning in each and every aspect of our lives.

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The Lost Forgotten

Nothing has ever been destroyed by peace, lost through understanding, burdened by compassion or stolen through honesty. These are lessons that have slipped from the human conscience as we have grown older and grown apart.

We have become a people that has forgotten to raise our nations in simplicity, thus we have become a race lost unto itself.

We have forgotten to teach honesty to our children so they will be become adults with integrity. We have forgotten to teach that we all must accept responsibility for our actions and learn to apologize so we can understand that the true meaning of respect is earned not self-proclaimed.

We have forgotten to live with understanding so that new generations discover fairness and compromise and that one only works when applied to the other. We have forgotten to express compassion to friend and enemy alike and so our world has suffered the tragedies of indifference and not the benefit of charity.

We have simply forgotten to be who we should be. If we continue to allow these lessons to slip away from our lives, then eventually they will be beyond our reach. A people who can no longer learn the simple lessons of life are a people who lose themselves and ultimately become lost to history.

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